Quintal Harmony | Advanced Guitar Chords

We played a guitar chord built up in 5ths in a previous post here. Usually chords are constructed from a scale in 3rds: taking every other note, quintal harmony builds chords in 5ths.

With a root note on the 4th fret notes of our chord are: Ab, Eb, Bb, F

Quintal and quartal chords are frequently used in modal music. Rather than playing through chord changes you can improvise taking the quintal voicing through the mode that is being improvised with.

Although this chord is not constructed in a traditional way, we can also think of it as Ab69 (no 3rd).

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Quintal harmony

Usually chords are constructed by taking every other note of a scale, constructing the chord in thirds. However this isn't the only way of constructing chords, they also be built up in 4ths (called quartal harmony) and 5ths (quintal harmony).
The notes of our chord are: C, G, D, A

Quartal and quintal chords have an open sound quite different to chord built in 3rds in the traditional way, they are often used in modal music - that is music based around a mode rather than harmonic chord progression. The chords are then taken through the scale, you could for example try taking this chord through the C major scale e.g. 
D, A, E, B
E, B, F, C
F, C, G, D etc

Although this chord is not constructed in a traditional way, we can also think of it as C69 (no 3rd).

Tune in tomorrow for another Guitar Chord Of The Day.